Return to Gran Canaria
Okay, I must admit that the Interlude from the holiday went on a lot longer than anticipated. So for those of you who have been holding your breath for all this time... please breathe now! Hopefully I will now be able to get a bit closer to finishing chatting about my holiday in Gran Canaria.
So a brief recap - My folks and I went on holiday to Gran Canaria in March. After 7 days of walking around checking out the various places on the island, my Dad hired a car and we braved the roads. My last entry on this subject, entitled "Kerb", saw us on day one of the car hire where we ventured into the interior regions of the island. This entry is now day two of the car hire where we decided that the coastal route to the west of the island was a good idea...
Again I was placed in the front passenger seat with the map in one hand and the eyes on the roadside, yelling "KERB" on the odd occasion (or more likely all the time due to my panicked state not really due to my Dads driving!). The coastal roads were in fact more windy and busy than the interior roads and I was in a state most of the way. Our aim was to get to the look out point at Anden Verde, going through Puerto Rico, Mogan and San Nicolas De Tolentino. We initially stopped at a look out area called Mirador de Balcon to take pictures...
This (left) is looking to the south of the lookout point.
And to the right is the view looking north.
After this stop, we continued north to the Anden Verde lookout and stopped again to take a couple more photos. The one shown on the
left is of the view looking north. If you have good eyes and you look carefully at the photo, you can see Tenerife in the distance with its snow capped mountain.
At each of these stops I took the opportunity to take a breather and try reduce my adrenalin levels (didn't quite work but hey!). I was fascinated at these points (and this goes for the first day of the car hire) to find that at the tops of these mountains there was always a cyclist or two having a little rest before continuing on their way... and they never seemed to be going downhill! Crazy cyclists!
On the way back towards Maspalomas, we stopped off at various spots to take in the view or to just have a break. The first of these stops was to look at a geological wonder - we didn't know what it was, hence the "wonder". We reckoned that this (pic) formation was due to an old lava flow and that the various minerals in the flow were making their presence known. The photo doesn't quite give the formation justice - the green was a lot more spectacular! You have to see it in real life to appreciate it fully.
The main stop we made was at Puerto de Morgan where we decided to relax on the beach and people watch. Some of the sights were pretty scary - thongs and g-string swimming costumes were a bit off-putting, especially on people who shouldn't be wearing them! While sitting on the beach and relaxing, the peace was often disturbed by hooting horns in the distance (oh and the occasional angle-grinder at the building site not far off). On listening to the horns, the observant type would realize that it was only horns that belonged to big vehicles that were sounding - buses, trucks and any other HGV. Looking up at the side of the mountain (which was a backdrop to the bay
/beach where we were sitting), one could see the reason for this honking of horns. About a quarter of the way down from the top of the mountain (pic) was a road and at the one point the road did a major turn. The honking of horns was to warn people on one side of the mountain that something big was about to come around the corner and needed to use both lanes of the road to do so. So basically the big vehicles were saying "yahoo, I am coming ready or not! Get out of the way!!!". Amazingly no two large vehicles traveling in opposite directions ever seemed to want to come around the corner at the same time. I presume "first to hoot" gets right of way. Scary.
After this revelation, it was time for us to face that same road. I was not amused but we made it safely back to our accommodation and I was happy to see the back of that hire car.
So a brief recap - My folks and I went on holiday to Gran Canaria in March. After 7 days of walking around checking out the various places on the island, my Dad hired a car and we braved the roads. My last entry on this subject, entitled "Kerb", saw us on day one of the car hire where we ventured into the interior regions of the island. This entry is now day two of the car hire where we decided that the coastal route to the west of the island was a good idea...
Again I was placed in the front passenger seat with the map in one hand and the eyes on the roadside, yelling "KERB" on the odd occasion (or more likely all the time due to my panicked state not really due to my Dads driving!). The coastal roads were in fact more windy and busy than the interior roads and I was in a state most of the way. Our aim was to get to the look out point at Anden Verde, going through Puerto Rico, Mogan and San Nicolas De Tolentino. We initially stopped at a look out area called Mirador de Balcon to take pictures...
This (left) is looking to the south of the lookout point.
And to the right is the view looking north.
After this stop, we continued north to the Anden Verde lookout and stopped again to take a couple more photos. The one shown on the
left is of the view looking north. If you have good eyes and you look carefully at the photo, you can see Tenerife in the distance with its snow capped mountain.At each of these stops I took the opportunity to take a breather and try reduce my adrenalin levels (didn't quite work but hey!). I was fascinated at these points (and this goes for the first day of the car hire) to find that at the tops of these mountains there was always a cyclist or two having a little rest before continuing on their way... and they never seemed to be going downhill! Crazy cyclists!
On the way back towards Maspalomas, we stopped off at various spots to take in the view or to just have a break. The first of these stops was to look at a geological wonder - we didn't know what it was, hence the "wonder". We reckoned that this (pic) formation was due to an old lava flow and that the various minerals in the flow were making their presence known. The photo doesn't quite give the formation justice - the green was a lot more spectacular! You have to see it in real life to appreciate it fully.
The main stop we made was at Puerto de Morgan where we decided to relax on the beach and people watch. Some of the sights were pretty scary - thongs and g-string swimming costumes were a bit off-putting, especially on people who shouldn't be wearing them! While sitting on the beach and relaxing, the peace was often disturbed by hooting horns in the distance (oh and the occasional angle-grinder at the building site not far off). On listening to the horns, the observant type would realize that it was only horns that belonged to big vehicles that were sounding - buses, trucks and any other HGV. Looking up at the side of the mountain (which was a backdrop to the bay
/beach where we were sitting), one could see the reason for this honking of horns. About a quarter of the way down from the top of the mountain (pic) was a road and at the one point the road did a major turn. The honking of horns was to warn people on one side of the mountain that something big was about to come around the corner and needed to use both lanes of the road to do so. So basically the big vehicles were saying "yahoo, I am coming ready or not! Get out of the way!!!". Amazingly no two large vehicles traveling in opposite directions ever seemed to want to come around the corner at the same time. I presume "first to hoot" gets right of way. Scary.After this revelation, it was time for us to face that same road. I was not amused but we made it safely back to our accommodation and I was happy to see the back of that hire car.
posted by CJ | 11:56 AM
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